Knesset passes law canceling the requirement to teach core subjects

The Knesset Plenum passed a law late Monday night which annuls the requirement to teach the ”Core Curriculum” in Haredi schools. The government-sponsored bill was merged with a proposal submitted by MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) and a group of Knesset members.

Forty-one MKs voted in favor of the amendment to the curriculum law in its second and third readings, and 28 opposed the legislation. The curriculum law, passed by the Yesh Atid party in 2013, would slash state funding for some Haredi institutions from its current 55 percent of the budgets that Israeli schools that comply fully with the core curriculum receive, to 35%.

Instead of requiring the Haredi schools to teach 10 to 11 hours per week of secular studies, as the Yesh Atid law stipulated, the new law now gives the Education Minister the authority to fund these institutions.